The Espion Silk is an 80W mod which comes with a 2800mAh internal battery and is covered in Hypoallergenic rubber, yes it’s a skin-friendly mod!

I’m not sure whether many vapers have allergies from using their mods, but the rubber segments do have another purpose. They provide excellent protection to the device while being incredibly comfortable to hold.

The Espion Silk has quite a disappointingly small 0.69-inch OLED screen, which seems a little swamped by its large rubber housing.

The grooved fire button sits flush with the front rubber panel, while the +/- adjustment buttons, micro USB port and display sit inset and are protected by the chunky rubber.

On the bottom of the mod, there are 4 small vent holes for the battery and a reset hole along with the usual CE marks. Other than that it’s quite a simple device…..that just has rubber glued all around it.

The device can fit up to 24.5mm atomizers on top, and it comes paired with the interesting 22mm diameter NotchCore tank.

The NotchCore tank is the real innovation and exciting part of this kit, it uses 0.45-ohm NotchCoils, and has a 2.5ml capacity. It’s a very simple looking straight tank and matches perfectly with the Espion Silk mod.

There’s no denying the Espion Silk is one ugly looking device.

I like that it has a rubber exterior which makes it unbelievably comfortable to hold, along with providing some excellent protection from drops.

But the way Joyetch have gone about applying the rubber sections just looks like some 6 year old’s attempt at patchwork; it’s pretty hideous.

Also, the selection of colors they have decided to go with is exceptionally odd. The worst of which is probably the rather washed out old man beige that we have for review. The others are a little more bearable, but it baffles me why they didn’t just go with some more conventional or subtle colors.

Of all the rubber sections on the device, the top front panel is the largest eyesore, as it folds up over the top edge again to provide more protection.

One of the saving graces of the design is the fire button with its horizontal grooves, although it’s made solely of plastic like most of the device, it is easy to locate with your finger and relatively tactile with no rattle whatsoever.

I don’t think many people are going to be turned on by the looks of this device, and thank god that’s not it’s main selling point.

There’s nothing wrong with the build quality of the Espion Silk.

I’m not sure what material they have used for the chassis, and it’s not stated anywhere, but it feels like either plastic or plastic coated aluminum.

Each rubber segment appears to be glued to the frame but doesn’t feel like it will peel off easily. The rubber and plastic combination leads to the device being extremely light while maintaining a robust and rugged form.

It’s definitely a device that will handle drops well, and with the amount of rubber applied, it will probably bounce straight back up into your hands!

All other aspects like the fire button, +/- buttons and 510 connection are well done as we’d expect from Joyetech.

Overall it’s very good build quality for what the device is.

It’s actually a very compact kit measuring in at 120mm tall (with the NotchCore tank), 400mm wide and 29.5mm deep.

As I mentioned before it’s also incredibly light only weighing 140g, which is mighty impressive especially considering it has a 2800mAh battery inside.

I’m not sure how they’ve managed it, but it certainly makes it a pocket-friendly kit.

This is the first device I’ve come across which is being marketed as having hypoallergenic properties! I don’t know about all that, and whether it’s something that any vaper is actually looking for in a device. I wouldn’t say it’s innovative, but it is unique.

The real innovation with the kit comes with the NotchCore atomizer, which we will go into detail later. It’s the first tank to utilize NotchCoils for the everyday vaper and actually get it right, it’s very well implemented.

The Espion Silk is capable of firing up to 80W and comes with all of the typical Joyetech features.

There’s temp control for SS, Ni, Ti, and three TCR memory modes in addition to a bypass mode.

There’s also preheat options, allowing you to enter the power and duration of the preheat in wattage mode.

The screen displays all of the critical information like current wattage, coil resistance, voltage and amps when firing, along with an indicator for each battery.

There’s also 2A charging for the 2800mAh internal battery, and firmware upgradability via micro USB, which is great.

Nearly all of Joyetech device have the same simple menu and operation at present, so I won’t go into too much detail.

• 5 clicks of fire button – switches the device on and off
• 3 clicks of fire button – Allows you to select mode (Wattage, ByPass, SS, Ni, Ti, and M1-3)
• Press +/- simultaneously – locks both buttons, the device will still fire
• 4 clicks of fire button (while in TC Mode) – allows you to change the wattage
• Fire button and + simultaneously – Accesses the settings menu for the current mode you are in. Here you can adjust screen info, brightness or lock resistance (in TC mode)

It’s a fairly intuitive menu system that only takes a few minutes to get used to, although the tiny screen doesn’t help it.

The NotchCore tank is 22mm in diameter and has a 2.5ml capacity.

It features an easy to use slide-to-fill mechanism, dual bottom airflow and is only compatible with NotchCoil heads. Of which there are 5 included in the kit!

The NotchCoils sit in a gold-plated cradle which is surrounded by a peek insulator on the base of the tank. They are push fit and easily lock into place. However, you do need to be a bit more careful when removing them, even though the coil is flexible you don’t want to break it.

There are a few advantages to using a NotchCoil over any other sub tank coil on the market.

The first is it can save you a lot of money. NotchCoils can easily be re-wicked, so you don’t have to replace the whole coil. It’s just a case of rolling a piece of cotton to the right length and feeding it through the notch coil. I tried it a couple of times with Muji cotton, and while it is a little fiddly, you do get used to it.

The second is that they have a greater surface area and heat evenly and rapidly.

Thirdly, the NotchCoils supplied with the NotchCore ae 0.45-ohms, so they only need to be fired in the 25-35W range which means they consume less juice and battery.

I found them to perform best around the 30W mark, any more than that and I felt they were on the verge of a dry hit.

The NotchCore tank features an easy to use slide-to-fill method.

There’s a small red arrow clearly marking where to push on the top cap, and it has a nice satisfactory click to it when it opens and closes.

The fill port is an average size, and you shouldn’t have any issues fitting your bottle tops in there.

The Espion Silk kit surprised me somewhat with its performance.

The mod itself performs just how you’d expect from a basic Joyetech device, solid in power mode and a little flaky in TC mode.

However, it’s the NotchCore tank that impressed me the most. Quite frankly I was expecting it to be subpar on both airflow and flavor, but it’s actually really good.

With the airflow wide open on the NotchCore tank it’s quite an airy vape, and it’s capable of producing good clouds.

The airflow is smooth, but a little noisy with it wide open and the flavor, unfortunately, is a little muted.

The flavor is best when the airflow is turned down to just a quarter open, it produces a nice restricted lung vape, and the flavor is really good. It’s certainly not going to beat the top sub-ohm tanks or RTAs, but it’s the best vape I’ve had from a NotchCoil, and I was more than satisfied with the flavor.

The only issue with the airflow turned down is the airflow becomes a little turbulent and a damn sight noisier.

There’s not much delay firing in power mode. I’m not sure if that’s down to the device, the NotchCoils, or a collaboration of the two.

The pre-heat settings aren’t really required because it heats so quickly, but it’s good to have the option for other atomizers.

I would say the Espion Silk is best suited to use with the NotchCore tank or other lower powered atomizers.

Only having a maximum of 80W, it did feel like it was struggling when I pushed it above 50W using the Augvape Intake, and on a couple of occasions I got the ‘overheat protection’ warning, so best stick to lower wattages.

Joyetech doesn’t list the material of NotchCore coils (which is not good), so I guessed it was SS and tried it in that setting.

It prevented any dry hits even when I pushed it up to 450F, so I’m guessing SS was correct. It’s actually not a bad experience with the NotchCoils in TC mode, it has the occasional choppy moment, but it was smoother than I expected.

The rest of the TC performance is, unfortunately, the usual story. The Joyetech chip is capable of dealing with less exotic single coils, but as soon as you go more extravagant with the build or try dual coils, it kicks you out of TC mode.

So if you are a TC vaper, then it’s not the best device for you. However, I think most will be happy using the supplied NotchCore tank in wattage mode.

The battery life of the Espion Silk is good with the internal 2800mAh battery.

As a kit, it’s actually excellent due to the NotchCoils being 0.45-ohms, so you only need to run them between 25-35W. This was getting me over 5 hours of vaping while testing the device, and might see some through a full day.

There’s also 2A charging, which does top up the device rather quickly.

The Espion Silk Kit is genuinely a very good kit from Joyetech – it’s just a shame it’s so ugly.

The mod is incredibly comfortable to hold, extremely compact, lightweight, and performs as expected. I started to really enjoy the rubbery texture and pocket-friendly size of it.

However, the NotchCore tank is the real top trump of this kit. It certainly won’t be for everyone, and honestly, it isn’t a tank I would use every day. But for a vaper that doesn’t want to build coils, or waste money on replacement sub tank coils it’s an excellent solution.

It gives good clouds and decent flavor, and having the ability to change out the wicks on the NotchCoils means they should last you are a very long time. Also the fact that Joyetech includes 5 coils in the kit is excellent.

I honestly didn’t expect NotchCoils to hit the mainstream as they always seemed lacking in performance, but after using this kit, I’ve changed my mind. They are convenient and economical especially if used in the right tank like the NotchCore.

As for the kit as a whole, it’s a decent pairing and one which will suit plenty of vapers out there. I just hope Joyetech release some new colors or a less vulgar version of the Espion Silk.